(five years after the annexation of City of Lake View)1894 Sanborn Fire Maplisting the area from Graceland Boulevard to Fullerton Avenue

text by Dominic Pacyga & Ellen Skerrett - Chicago: City of NeighborhoodsA Modern Map View of Old Lake ViewThe boxed addresses on this map are Western on the top & Devon, Fullerton on the right side.(click to enlarge)

One of the first schools of the township and apparent meeting site of the formation meetings prior to 1857.

Foster and Clark Street as of 1914

According to one urban legend the Andersonville may have been named after a Norwegian minister named John Anderson. Mr. Anderson purchase property just south of Foster Avenue and east of Ashland Avenue in the late 1840’s. Apparently, one of the first schools in the township, Conrad Sulzer School (Ravenswood Elementary) the other, was named after Mr. Anderson and simply called Andersonville School. This school once located on the southwest corner of Foster and Clark Street (1855-1925) served as a meeting place for township civic leaders (p.263) like I.S. Skippy, John Mauritzen, and Dr. Conrad Sulzer to organize Lake View Township.

While Mr. Anderson’s fame maybe in doubt there is no doubt of the contribution of Pehr Peterson who established an estimated 500 acre nursery that probably serviced the new cemetery of RoseHill by 1859 among other institutions in the township and the City of Chicago.Dr. Conrad Sulzer regarded as the grand-daddy of the establishment of the township also owned a nursery but serviced the new Graceland Cemetery as of 1861. The subdivision of Andersonville began to flourish after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. After the fire the city building codes changed and wooden sidewalks and buildings needed to be more fire resistant and more costly to build. Not so in Lake View Township until after the annexation of the township in 1889 by the City of Chicago.

Still, Andersonville subdivision remained a ‘backwater’ community until 1910. To learn more about history of this community visit the Edgewater History Society as well as the neighborhood website. Read about the removalof the iconic water tower that was a landmark of the community.

In 1868 a group of real-estate speculators (p. 712) formed the Ravenswood Land Company and purchased 194 acres of farmland in west central Lake View Township. As a note, the area west of Commerical Avenue (Hermitage Avenue) was not part of the land purchased. The area east of Hermitage to Clark Street, Montrose to Graceland Avenue (Irving Park Road) is currently called the community of West Graceland in the neighborhood of Lake View.

Map of the area highlighting Graceland Cemetery and the community of Ravenswood - 1879Sulzer=Montrose & Shippery=LawrenceGreen Bay Road=Clark StreetGraceland Cemetery: A Design History - Christopher Vernon

Martin Van Allen, member of the Ravenswood Land Company 1875 News in the Community of Ravenswood

While the Ravenswood Land Company built a schoolhouse the main sewer systems and roads and most of the civic infrastructure was incurred by the residents’ own financial contributions.

By 1884 the Ravenswood Historical Society - pp. 713-714, presently called the 'Ravenswood-Lake View Historical Association' was established and was to be located in a 30 x 40 two story brick building on the southwest corner of Commercial and Graceland (Hermitage $ Irving Park Road). Apparently, the building included a ground floor library and reading room and the top floor a lecture hall and doubled as a concert hall. The present collection of photography, maps, and publications are located at the Sulzer Regional Library in Lincoln Square and called the Ravenswood-Lake View Community Collection.

Apparently, as late as the 1920’s open ditches and muddy streets were alongside the manicured and stately lawns, gardens and homes, a work in progress. Apparently, the above image is the area on north side of Lawrence Avenue between Damen Avenue and Ravenswood Avenue. - Calumet 412. According the publication Hidden History of Ravenswood & Lake View by Patrick Butler residents got their water from the river and had a difficult time acquiring it. The township next door, Jefferson Township, wouldn't (or couldn't - funds?) install sewers for this new area until the annexation of both Jefferson and Lake View Townships in 1889.

As of 1949, this community was referred to as the neighborhood of Lincoln Square. Several neighborhoods in the area claim the old Ravenswood township community.

Note: Half of Patrick Bulter's book tells the tale of now fragmented former township community.

Also, read the ever changing borders of this original township community as of 2015 with the DNAifno article.

Below is a 1954 Chicago Tribune article about the neighborhood of Lincoln Square that includes parts of the original Ravenswood community. Several other neighborhoods lay claim as well such as the neighborhood of LakeView.

The bold printed titles on the map indicated a community of its day. Summerdale is located north of Ravenswood and near Mt. Pleasant and the Andersonville

(Northwest Company rail line) train station by Foster Avenue.

'The second stop was added in 1875 and was called
Summerdale, named by the developers of 'Clybourn Addition' to community of Ravenswood, which
was located south of Foster and west of the tracks. The station however, was
located north of Foster but south of Farragut and originally on the west side
of the tracks' according to Edgewater Historical Society. According to the same source, '

The origin of the name Summerdale is not known, but the
son of one of the Edgewater developers thought it was chosen because it "sounded pleasant". Also according to sources from the Edgewater Historical Society,
‘the community [even] in 1904 as “…a sprawling area of truck gardens with an
occasional house. The streets were all laid out and paved with macadam. There
were even sidewalks, some of them concrete. But there was no gas, no
electricity.From Rosehill Drive to Lawrence Avenue, there were no more than twenty buildings along Ashland Avenue.”’

In 1887 James B. Waller, a long-time resident of the Township of Lake View began to sell of his property by subdividing his 35 acres to land speculators and developers. The original Waller home is now the site of St. Mary of the Lake church that was built and dedicated in 1917. Including in the 35 acres was a "pebbled crescent shaped beach" along the lakefront (Daily Tribune 1889 article).

Delectable Ballad of the Waller Lot Fry,

Rowena, circa 1898-1990 - artist

Chicago History Museum 1951

This 1894 Sanborn Fire Map shows the Waller Estate

(the sole dwelling surrounded by vacant space).

Edgecomb Court is now Culver Avenue and Evanston Avenue is now Broadway

Most of his lakefront property was on a ridge that overlook the lake that had a view of a small harbor yards away of Marine Hospital near Graceland (Irving Park Road) Avenue and Lake Michigan now the home of Disney Magnet School.

Marine Hospital for Soldiers and Sailors

photo - Ebay

This federal hospital was built in 1875 located between Graceland (Irving Park Road) and Sulzer Road

Note: The entire neighborhood is listed in the National Register of Historical Places since 1984. It is interesting to view the dwellings that were listed in 1984 and discover which ones survived to the present.

Below is a 1985 Chicago Tribune article about the late 20th century rebirth of the community is within the neighborhood of Uptown

In 1885, John Lewis Cochran (p. 769) purchased vacant land to build a subdivision called 'Edgewater'. East of Broadway and bounded by Bryn Mawr and Foster Avenues, this new community was the first planned development to have paved streets, electric lighting, drainage system, street cleaning and tree trimming.

In 1885, John Lewis Cochran, a tobacco salesman for the
McDowell Tobacco Company of Philadelphia began to purchase land along the
lakeshore from Foster Avenue (once called 59th Street in the Township of
Lake View) to Bryn Mawr, a street he named. This land west of what is now
Sheridan Road was his first purchase and he named it Edgewater. He had a vision
of a suburb much like the suburbs of Philadelphia that extended out from that
city along a railroad called the Main Line. The train line that ran through
Edgewater was the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul line. Cochran persuaded the railroad to open a station at Bryn Mawr
which he had built of wood and stone in the Eastern architectural style called
Shingle Style. At the same time he built a large recreation and business
building he called the Guild Hall in the same style. He had engaged an
architect, Joseph Lyman Silsbee to design this and some houses which were built
on Kenmore and Winthrop. Cochran subdivided the land and improved the area with
sewers, stone sidewalks, macadam streets and electric power. He offered
no-interest loans and advertised this community in the newspapers. He
maintained an office in the Loop and one at the Guild Hall. Although he had
persuaded the railroad to stop at Bryn Mawr there were only a few trains each
day. He began by building homes along Winthrop and providing electricity to
them so that those riding by the community would recognize it as an appealing
place. The lots were fifty feet of frontage along the streets and many of those
attracted to the area bought at least two lots; some purchased as many as four.
In 1887, Cochran completed the purchase of land north of Bryn Mawr to a point
in the middle of the block between Ardmore and Thorndale. Cochran named these
streets as well as Berwyn, Balmoral and Claremont, now Catalpa. In his next
addition in 1889 he added the land from the first addition north to Devon with
streets named Glenlake, Grand and Rosemont. After a short time working with
Silsbee he found that many buyers wanted more options in the designs of their
homes. He fired Silsbee and hired George Washington Maher as lead architect.
Maher worked in the area for many years though any homes he designed for
Cochran did not have his name as architect. Cochran was the holder of the
building permit. Every lot that Cochran sold had a covenant on it with a
restriction that the buildings could only be single family homes. The length of
time for this restriction was 20 years. When homes were resold after 20 years
the restriction was lifted. This time limit on the restriction was the factor
that changed Cochran’s beautiful suburb into the urban area it is today.
Cochran himself lived to see this transformation which began in 1908 when the
train tracks were elevated and Edgewater was connected by the “L” system to
downtown Chicago. That connection created a pressure for more housing units and
flats as more and more people moved to Chicago. Even as some builders were
building flat buildings other were building large single family homes along the
newly opened section of Sheridan Road south of Bryn Mawr. Years later some
owners began selling their side yards to builders of apartment hotels and the
density of the area increased. On some of the remaining empty lots large
apartment homes were built. The units in these buildings had three to five
bedrooms and maid’s quarters. By the 1920s the variety of housing in the area
ranged from large single family homes and two flats to large apartment homes
and apartment hotels. Cochran’s suburb of Edgewater became an urban
neighborhood.

1885 - Edgewater Historical Societymaps

1894 Sanborn Fire Map

In 1886, the first ten houses and a commercial building called the Guild Hall was built along with a train station at Bryn Mawr to offer transportation south to Graceland Avenue (Irving Park Road) along Evanston Avenue (Broadway Avenue) to Diversey Parkway. This community was known for its horse stables and 'horse and cycle clubs' such as the Edgewater Stables and the Saddle and Cycle Club.

The Edgewater Stables - 1880's

For a more depth view of this neighborhood browse through their historical society's website

Other Communities of Old Lake ViewCommunity of Argyle Park

Community of High Ridge

Community of Rose Hill

What's in a Name 1880

Community of HenryTown

Van Vechten's 1870 map

Community of Pine Grove

Van Vechten's 1870 map that highlights the Lake View Hotel The road that connect Chicago along the lakeshore

images - LakeView Saga 1837- 1985Community of Bowmanville

This is one of the oldest communities in both the old townships of Lake View and Jefferson. In fact, this community was founded in what was once Ridgeville Township (1850-1857). In 1857 that township was basically split in two. Western Avenue was the border of both Lake View & Jefferson Townships with the community of Bowmanville located on both sides of Western until the annexation of both townships to the City of Chicago. After the establishment of official neighbors by 1930 the neighborhood of Bowmanville was located east of Western Avenue.

Bowmanville as a community was originally located around Foster Avenue and Western Avenue was established in 1850's by Jesse Bowman, a local lodge keeper. Although his claim to the land was later found to be illegal, it did not prevent the area from becoming a bustling settlement. Jesse Bowman was a man who was passionate about getting things done fast -- and not necessarily by the books.

In the early 1850's he unofficially cultivated the dirt paths through the forest near present-day Foster and Ravenswood avenues. He laid claim to many of the imaginary plots in the area without actually owning any of the property. He then sold the land 'that wasn't his" to unwitting buyers, and the later skipped town or according the publication Hidden History of Ravenswood & Lake View by Patrick Butler or disappeared "any of the victims had anything to do with Bowman disappearance".

After the legal issues were resolved the area became a stopping point for farmers delivering their goods to markets in Chicago. Numerous saloons and taverns sprang up, among them an establishment owned by Hiram Roe, locate on Roe’s Hill. The original name of the area was later misspelled Row’s Hill and then Rose Hill, which became the name of the train depot in the community. The name eventually became Rosehill, as in Rosehill Cemetery.

This was one of the earliest communities before Lake View Township & Evanston Township were once part of the first township in northern Illinois - Ridgeville Township 1850-1857.

P.L. Miller Fancy Groceries and Meat Market

The grocery store was situated on the northeast corner of Foster and Wolcott Avenues -1860's?

Other businesses included lodges/roadhouses, carpenter shops (for coffins), stone mason shops (headstones) greenhouses (flowers and vegetables) to name a few. This was the same time that a doctor from Switzerland and his family located south of Bowmanville; later to regarded as the official founder of Lake View Township - Conrad Sulzer.

During this time period Chicagoans who lived in then dense communities of the city began to move where the land was rural and inexpensive. This community was one of the three.

The above aerial photograph showing farms, homes, streets, telephone poles, and open land were apparently the L.A. Budlong Company, a first successful commercial greenhouse in the township. The company at one time occupy 400 hundred acres of land. According the publication Hidden History of Ravenswood & Lake View by Patrick Butler "the workers were originally paid at the end of the day in silver dollars, known as 'Budlong Dollars' or simply 'Budlongs' ". Also, the book mentions that "by the turn of the century, they had between eighteen to twenty greenhouses described by one visitor as a 'virtual village of glass'"(p.122). The remaining greenhouses remained as late as 1988.

“This is Devon Avenue in 1914 looking east from about Claremont, just east of Western Ave. The people are from L to R my great aunt, my Mother, my grandmother, Uncle, and another grand aunt. They are walking from Angel Guardian /St Henry’s church (steeple way barely visible in the background) back to a truck farm on the SW corner of Rockwell and Devon where my grandparents worked.

Narrative & Navigation

This has been a passion of mine for several years. This passion began with a simple inquiry of an ornate gate that surrounds a parking lot on my street. This singular inquiry lead me to learn everything I could online about the history of my neighborhood - Lake View, one of the 77 neighborhoods within the City of Chicago. Consider this topical blog as an online library of information for educators like myself who intend to teach others about this historical & robust corner of Chicago. I hope you enjoy the read and add any type of comments at the end of each post. I have a Facebook presence called 'LakeView Historical'.